AMCOL International Corporation Message Board

Interesting. I always was impressed by Washow, but perhaps he wasn't as good as we thought, or maybe it was just bad fortune. I recall being excited by the contracting for the chance to speed up the implementation of newer ACO products and techniques that would make everything more cost effective.

Since we talked about these 58 subsidiaries in Feb., it sounds like they are starting to address them a little. From this Qs conference call they made these comments.

So I think we're investing and kind of grouping the product areas appropriately for growth and we've taken a very sort of detached analytical look at some of the businesses that we've been in. And we've made some significant cuts. I mean, we got out of the paper business. We got out of contracting business. We're closing all these offices in Europe. Those things are not easy when you're emotionally attached to them. But I think we've been doing a pretty good job in addressing those kinds of issues.

Back when I had a real job, I know Lilly shut down for 10 days around the Christmas holiday. We did some major renovations in a short time slot. I also remember the auto plants used to shut down for a couple weeks during the new model transitions in the summer. Same idea, we would go in and work around the clock for 2 weeks. They may have smoothed that out in recent years.

Gee, I think of retail seasonality, but I didn't realize it had an effect on production scheduling (except in China and is it August in Western Europe). I had learned the start of deer hunting season has an impact in parts of Pennsylvania.

Sounds like March was the culprit:

North American auto makers built 1,374,374 light vehicles in March, down 3.0% from year-ago, including 613,068 cars and 761,306 light trucks.

Part of the reason for the decline was the Easter holiday falling in March, cutting the number of production days at most plants compared with last year, when the holiday was in April.

Despite the decline, production of 3,994,991 units through 2013’s first three months was up 1.1% from first-quarter 2012.

To my surprise, auto "Light Vehicle Production" in North America only increased 1% in the first quarter, year over year

I suppose Amcol could outperform their peers this quarter, but they haven't really done that very often lately. Q1 should be out around Apr. 25 or so.

Thanks. From their CC, the CEO had a fairly reserved outlook.

As part of our ongoing operating process, we recently conducted an extensive market analysis. Included in the process are market research and analytics, customer visits and extensive supplier discussions. And what we realized is that the metalworking-related sectors have been particularly hard-hit relative to others. We've seen it in heavy industrial manufacturer and distributor comps. We've heard it extensively in discussions with our supplier community. We've seen it firsthand in our customers, and we've seen it in leading metalworking activity indicators. We've also heard that our share gain performance remains as strong as it's always been.

While there are certainly pockets of growth like commercial aerospace and automotive, the core of metalworking, segments like primary metals, machinery metal fabrication and others, is soft, softer than what's reflected in the broader ISM figures, which reflect an average across many industries.

Still good to see long term holders adding.

Thanks Algo. It looks like his non-compete was only for a year. I always thought his departure was a little abrupt. The retirement PR was short and to the point and the 8-K seemed a little terse even for those boilerplate docs. Sure seems like he could be an asset to Oil Dri and a problem for Amcol. Another grrr.....

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawrence-e-washow-joins-oil-210100894.html

Oil Dri is a competitor. Washow wasn't forced out of ACO or anything, was he?